Apply to be a SciFinder Future Leader

Applications are being accepted for the 2017 SciFinder Future Leaders program, organized by CAS, a division of the American Chemical Society. The program will be held Aug. 14–19 in Columbus, Ohio.

The program provides Ph.D. students and postdoctoral researchers from around the world with opportunities to collaborate with CAS scientists, innovators, and business leaders to expand their professional network and build connections. At the conclusion of the program in Columbus, participants will attend the fall ACS national meeting in Washington, D.C., from Aug. 20–24.

“Participation in the SciFinder Future Leaders program gave me the opportunity to find out the inner workings of CAS and how I can better use SciFinder to improve my approach to research,” says Banothile Makhubela, a senior lecturer in chemistry at the University of Johannesburg, in South Africa, who participated in the program in 2013.

“We were also able to offer our advice on exciting developmental projects, helping CAS deliver the next generation of online research tools for chemists,” says Marc Reid, who participated in the program in 2016 as a postdoc and is now a Leverhulme Trust Fellow and Strathclyde-GSK Early Career Academic at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, Scotland.

Nadine Borduas, a graduate student in chemistry at ETH Zürich, who participated in the program in 2014, says that “taking a short break from my Ph.D. research to attend the program and the ACS meeting gave me a huge boost of energy to move forward in my own research. I met like-minded students and postdocs that were excited about science and willing to learn new things.”

“Because it’s not only a prize but an educational program, you get to visit research centers around Columbus,” says Fernando Gomollón-Bel, who attended in 2014 while he was a graduate student at the Institute of Chemical Synthesis & Homogeneous Catalysis in Spain. “I remember quite vividly the amazing facilities of Battelle and the very interesting mix of ideas we learned from all the start-ups growing in TechColumbus (now Rev1 Ventures). As a Ph.D. student, I appreciated seeing opportunities in all different kinds of markets.”